September 21, 2006
To Lumajang: Long day
"I've noticed today there are fewer guardrails along the roads, rather the roads are lined with trees that are painted white about 4 feet with a black paint strip around the top and bottom." Rachel says. We thought that Kalibaru was just about the highest point before the road would descend again, but we were in for a surprise.
We leave just a little later again today to take advantage of the hotel breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs, jelly, fruit juice and coffee included with our room. Then the climbing starts. Over about 7 km we ascend to 727 meters before finally going down towards Lember. We ride through planted pine forests and get a few glimpses of Mt. Ruang. Traffic is heavy around Lember, for awhile we ride on a four lane highway, then turning south on a quieter road towards Kencong and Temple. We have mie goreng at a roadside restaurant, it's hot today with no cloud cover to help us out.
At about 3pm, we get to Kencong, we've ridden about 90 km today and we are tired. We ask twice if there is a hotel in town, nor is there one in the next town or Temple. Patrick is surprised as he remembers the trip in '93 medium sized towns would have at least a losmen (very simple hotel or hostel). A guy selling something out of the back of his scooter is very helpful but advises us to go onto Lumajang another 23km. We stop just outside of town to drink some pop when he stops by again. Seems like we picked his brothers shop for a rest.
The last 23km are hard, they are flat, but Patrick's saddle isn't broken in enough for such a long ride and Rachel's shoulders hurt from sitting on a bike all day. The pains of a beginning of long trip. It's only our second week and riding a long day is still hard. But at least we now know we can do it. About 4:30pm we find the Aloha Hotel on the outskirts of Lumajang. It is a trucker's hotel with small rooms, cold water mandi only and small beds. The scoops of cold water feel good though after such a hot day. Patrick walks down the street a bit further in search of milk, cookies and fruit. He found some real nice apples, but only sweetened condensed milk, no good for cornflakes. No restaurants in sight either so we eat Indonesian fare at the hotel restaurant. The hotel's central parking lot is filled with those pesky, small noisy mini trucks but the hotel is quiet.
This was Rachel's first experience with an Indonesian bathroom where the toilet is a flat porcelain bowl with footrests on either side. To flush, is to use the plastic scooper and take water from the tank and pour into the toilet. The tank of water is a mandi, this is the water supply for you and guests that come after you. So, the goal is to keep the water clean.
Mandi means bathe or wash; Kamer mandi is bathroom or way-say or water closet.
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Today's ride: 112 km (70 miles)
Total: 470 km (292 miles)
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